I’ve told you once and I’ll say it again, I’ve knit a lot of socks. Literally hundreds of socks have come from my needles. I’ve had my share of mess-ups here and there, but it’s usually a straightforward process. Until I pulled out a special skein of yarn way back in January.

I decided to knit up this precious to me yarn into a pair of socks for my brother Judge. I with all over ribbing so that they would fit snugly and I was honestly playing a bit of guess work on the number of stitches since this is a fine yarn. I settled on 60 stitches and was off to the races. After a while, I couldn’t figure out what color to do the heel in, so I cast on the other sock and knit the leg of it too.

Eventually I settled for black but at this point, I was thinking it seemed to small. Everyone in my house also thought they would be too small, so I put them on hold for Judge to try on the next time I saw him. Try them on and confirm they were too small he did, so I ripped them out on that trip.

I settled on the DRK Everyday Socks by Andrea Mowry. I figured this would give me numbers to go off of and that heel gusset is just to die for. This is a toe-up sock pattern, way out of my comfort zone. I messed up the toe and heel so many times it’s embarrassing. It took me quite a while to get going, but I eventually got 1 sock done and then started the next one.

I got to the point at which you start increasing for the heel and thought I’d snap a quick picture. Cosi helped and I put it up on instagram, quite pleased with myself. I then sat right down to do the heel and discovered I had the wrong number of stitches. I said some blog-inappropriate things while I ripped the sock out and started over. But of course, I started over, only messed up the heel once and finally finished this pair of socks. About 8 months and 6 tries later, but I finished them.

Once they were done, I realized I had about 12g of yarn left in total, including 2 complete rainbow repeats. Any guesses as to what my current favorite leftover project is? You’re right, nephew socks! I though it would be just beyond for Uncle Judge and Oak to have a matching of socks. I cast on the Perfect Newborn Socks by Tabitha Gandee that I used for a few of his socks already and in no time I was down to the very last little dregs of grey from that skein. I would up with barely enough to weigh on the scale, so this yarn is safely all used up!

And with that, matching uncle/nephew socks are complete! This beautiful yarn that I have used up is 9 Dark Side epv by Must Stash Yarn, a lovely colorway inspired by the cover of Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon album – I’m not sure if she even dyes it anymore, it’s been in my stash for eight or so years. #yearofstash indeed!! The contrast color for both pairs of socks is Knit Picks Stroll Fingering in 23701 Black.

Judge and Oak are both highly knitworthy so all the extra effort was definitely worthwhile. These socks are on their way to their respective recipients now and I hope they make the wearers as happy and cheerful as they have made me.

---

Happy making!